Honda confirms 11th U.S. death connected to faulty Takata air bag inflator

Honda Motor stated on Monday it had confirmed 11th death in the US involving one of its vehicles connected to a malfunctioning Takata air bag inflator.

The automaker stated the incident took place in Florida in June 2016 when an individual was working on repair works on a 2001 Honda Accord and the air bag ruptured. About 17 deaths and 180 injuries worldwide are now associated with the defect that prompted the biggest ever car safety recall and led Takata to file bankruptcy protection last month.

The Honda Accord was amongst a group of over 300,000 unrepaired recalled Honda lorries geared up with inflators with a significant danger of bursting. Honda stated the car’s signed up owners had gotten a minimum of 12 recall notices however never ever got recommended repairs.

The person working on the automobile in Florida died one day after sustaining injuries when the air bag deployed.

In 2016, the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) prompted owners to stop driving the risky vehicles till they were repaired. NHTSA stated 2001-2003 model Honda and Acura vehicles have as huge as a 50 percent chance of a dangerous air bag inflator rupture in a crash.

Of the deaths connected to Takata’s inflators, 16 took place in Honda cars since May 2009, about five of them in Malaysia utilizing a various type Takata inflator, while one death took place in a Ford Motor vehicle in South Carolina in December 2015.

Other than that, a federal judge in Detroit on Monday said he planned to name law professor Eric D. Green to manage $975 million in compensation funds for Takata air bag victims and car manufacturers.

Scott Caudill, TK Holdings’s chief operating officer of Takata’s U.S. unit, stated in a court affidavit earlier in its bankruptcy filing that the company is facing overwhelming claims relating to the recalls and owes billions of dollars to automakers.

He revealed that Takata has recalled, or anticipates to recall, by 2019 about 125 million vehicles globally, including over 60 million in the United States.